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Qualcomm fires back at Apple suit, seeks damages of its own

Raimond Spekking via Wikimedia Commons

Qualcomm formally responded to a lawsuit from Apple on Monday, rejecting the iPhone maker's claims and launching its own countersuit. (Sources had told Recode that a countersuit was likely.) Among Qualcomm's charges are that Apple:

Breached agreements and mischaracterized agreements and negotiations with Qualcomm;

Interfered with agreements that Qualcomm had with the contract manufacturers who build Apple's iPads and iPhones

Encouraged various government regulatory agencies around the world to launch inquires against Qualcomm "by misrepresenting facts and making false statements"

Qualcomm also said Apple chose not to utilize the full capability of Qualcomm's modem chip in the iPhone 7, while also misleading people on the performance difference between its modem and a rival chip from Intel and then threatened Qualcomm to try to prevent it from making its own performance claims.

The background: Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion in January, saying the chipmaker was overcharging for use of its patented technology and failing to make required payments. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Qualcomm in January in the waning days of the Obama Administration, charging it violated antitrust law. As part of its response, Qualcomm maintains Apple's complaints to regulators released the company of its obligation to make certain payments.

Self-driving lab head urges freeze after "nightmare" fatality

Uber self-driving car in Pittsburgh. Photo: Jeff Swensen / Getty

Carmakers and technology companies should freeze their race to field autonomous vehicles because "clearly the technology is not where it needs to be," said Raj Rajkumar, head of Carnegie Mellon University's leading self-driving laboratory.

What he said: Speaking a few hours after a self-driven vehicle ran over and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, Rajkumar said, "This isn't like a bug with your phone. People can get killed. Companies need to take a deep breath. The technology is not there yet. We need to keep people in the loop."

Why it matters: Virtually every major car company on theplanet, in addition to numerous startups and tech companies, are doing live testing of self-driving vehicles — and pushing policy officials to allow them to do so.

But Rajkumar said that ordinary people in addition to automakers and tech companies have developed far too much trust in self-driving technology simply because the cars have driven hundreds of thousands of miles with only one fatality before this — a Tesla driver who slammed into the side of a truck last year.

Quote "This is the nightmare all of us working in this domain always worried about."

Trump, Sessions & GOP lawmakers to meet about sanctuary cities

The White House is hosting a roundtable on sanctuary cities Tuesday afternoon with the President, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the Department of Homeland Security, Republican lawmakers and others, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Conservatives tried to use this week’s massive government spending bill to cut federal funds from sanctuary cities, but they failed, according to sources involved in the process. But Trump officials want to use Tuesday’s event to highlight the issue and put pressure on cities that don't comply with federal immigration law enforcement.

The roundtable guest list:

Donald Trump

Mike Pence

John Kelly

Stephen Miller

Attorney General Jeff Sessions

DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

ICE acting Director Tom Homan

Gene Hamilton, Counselor to the Attorney General

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)

Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ)

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)

Texas AG Ken Paxton (R-TX)

Arkansas AG Leslie Rutledge

Members of the law enforcement community

Big picture: The Department of Justice is already suing the state of California for the state’s “radical” sanctuary cities law. And In his speech on Monday, President Trump blamed sanctuary cities for releasing criminals, drug dealers and gang members back into society, claiming that "ending sanctuary cities is crucial to stopping the drug addiction crisis."

Shortly after, Sessions announced that the DOJ had filed a lawsuit against California, and personally attacked Shaaf in his speech, saying she endangered the lives of law enforcement to promote her "radical open borders agenda."